4 Month Checkup

Today was Brooke's big 4 month checkup. We always enjoy taking her because we love our doctor and we love to hear how much she weighs and how long she is. We always do it on John's day off so he can be a part of things. Anyways, for starters she is 26 inches long, which is in the top percentile for height. She now weighs 15 pounds, 5 ounces. I thought that sounded enormous, but she's right on target with her weight. Big girl!

Then the shots came:-( Last time she had them, it was horriffic. However, she only cried for a few minutes and then I nursed her and she was totally fine. She's completely happy and acting like her normal, smiley self now, too. Last time she was miserable. I'm hoping she continues to do this well for the rest of the day.

As you all know, we struggle with reflux. None of the medications have really been any help so the doctor suggested rice cereal. I told him that I wanted to wait until she was at least 6 months old. He said that in normal cases he advocates waiting until 6 months, but he's seen a lot of reflux cases improve with one rice cereal feeding a day.

I thought about the rice cereal for a bit. I decided that the only reason I had been adverse to feeding it to her was because I wanted to be her sole source of nutrition for as long as possible. Me, me, me! With some encouragement from the doctor and John, I realized that if this could help my precious baby keep her food down, then I would at least try it.

We went to Target after the appointment and got pink and purple bowls and some pretty little spoons, along with some rice cereal. I came home and nursed her. I then mixed less than a tablespoon of cereal with a much higher ratio of breastmilk. I was expecting her to spit it out and hate it. To my complete surprise, she absolutely LOVED it. At first she tried to suck the spoon, but after a few bites, she got the idea. She liked it so much that she even cried when I stopped feeding her. She ate every last bite there was. I was so happy that she enjoyed it. It was so much fun for John, who fed her. I will only give her a small amount of cereal a day or every other day until she is at least 6 months old. This alone was a big step for us!

In other news, for the first time ever, Brooke slept in her crib at night. It was really sad at first because I have had her nestled up against me during the night hours since she was born. It was very scary for me to have her in her crib, but finally, I just stood over her crib and told God that she was His daughther, and I am giving Him my faith and trusting Him to watch over her while she sleeps. After that, I went to my bed and actually slept. God's peace came over me and I realized that her life and safety is His responsiblility. She slept in her crib from 10:30-3. I didn't think that that was too bad for her first night on her own. Hopefully when she gets used to it she will sleep through the night like she does in our bed.

Needless to say, this has been a hecktic, yet exciting, couple of days. Our little girl is growing so fast. It's such a pleasure to be there for every moment:-)